something in return. but not all house republicans, of course, are on board. >> the president is not interested in real policy solutions by what he's proposed. he's interested in politics, and that's the challenge we have, getting through that. >> and let me bring in our "news nation" political panel for this thursday, michael skirmonish and chris kofinis. eugene, we have the president in northern virginia meeting with the santana family. in her tweet or e-mail to the white house under the encouragement of the white house to tell how they would be impacted by a tax increase, she says in part, we truly are a picture of the 21st century middle class family, so $4,000 means we would lose much of our hope of growing our new business. you hear the republicans talk about small business owners and entrepreneurs, and here's a face

of at least one family that says they could be socked if a deal is not reached. eugene. >> that's right, tamron. this is the president continuing to put on the pressure. he's winning the public argument. this is the more favorable field of battle for him, is out in public opinion. he's out in the country. so he continues to do that. the more favorable field of battle for the republicans is inside a closed room where they still have the power of the majority of the house. so the president continues to do what's more favorable for getting the outcome he'd like to have. >> michael, i hate to bring you in. i hate to say this is how the game is played, but at this point it's about optics because both sides put the first proposals on the table. here you have this family, the face of america or so many americans talking about the punch they will feel. this at a time, michael, when there's a new poll showing 65%

support higher taxes on households making over $250,000. talk strategy, and does this one impress you where the president is at this home? >> well, i'm glad you used the word optics, because that's on my mind. i think the optics favor the white house at this stage. this is a complicated subject matter. there's a lot more at stake here than just whether they raise taxes for the wealthiest of americans. that's the take-away. in the 20-second sound bite world that we live, that's the message getting through. republicans are standing in the way of taxes being increased for the wealthiest among us, and that's bad messaging for the gop. so advantage to the white house in that regard, and you're starting to see some cracks in the armor. i thought it was very significant yesterday when senator coburn expressed a willingness now to think differently on that issue. if there's momentum, tamron, i think it's on the white house side of the aisle. >> and to your point, louisiana

governor bobby jindal has an op-ed, and he wrote in part, any reading the headlines over the past week indicates that republicans are fighting to protect the rich and cut benefits for seniors. it may be possible to have a worse political positioning than that, but i'm not sure how. that's a republican who certainly is trying to put his name out there after the election. he says if there's something worse going on, he can't see it. >> i think there's a marked difference between this negotiation and what took place two summers, i guess, ago between speaker boehner and the president when frankly i thought the white house did a poor job of its advocacy for its own position. this is different. it's as if they learned i lesson. they're digging in deeply this time around. they have the wind at their back because of an election result. it's a strategy. as you mentioned he's campai campaigning today. it's like the campaign didn't end. >> chris, let me bring you in. a lot of people talk about this latest interview with secretary

geithner. let me play a little bit of what he had to say regarding the fiscal cliff and the threat that looms. let me play it. >> when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy, those making more than $250,000, if republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthiest. >> so is it a bluff when the obama administration says they're willing to go off the cliff if a deal is not reached on rates? >> i don't think it's a bluff. if you look at the reality of what happens, all the leverage which i -- right now clearly the white house has. they get more leverage if we go over their cliff. you can argue that would not send a good message to the country, to the world. it would prove that we are dysfunctional and cannot govern, et cetera, et cetera. in terms of dealing with the policy problem, which is you have this massive and growing

debt, you have to bring in more revenues. there's multiple ways to do it, but critical ways to raise rates on the top end. it was what the election was about. republicans want to play the game where they think they get something. at the end of the day they lose worse if we go over the cliff. >> that's an interesting insight because you have alan simpson on the "today" show asked dp one side is a winner or loser off the cliff. here's what he had to say, chris. >> when you have leaders from the administration saying i think it's to the advantage of the democrats to go off the cliff or i think it's an advantage of the republicans to go off the cliff or the president to go off the cliff, that's like betting your country. there's stupidity involved in that. >> chris? >> well, listen, you know, i'm not saying it's necessarily the best policy course. i wish people could sit down and negotiate this, but at the end of the day think about it from the president's perspective. is he going to agree to a deal

with the republicans that has no rate increases, that talks about closing loopholes when republicans won't specify which loopholes. you don't want to go over the cliff because it's bad for the country and sends the wrong message. at the same time, the president has to make it clear to the republicans he's willing to do it. it's the only way to force the republicans to accept something they seemingly are devoid of accepting. >> eugene, let me bring you in. i want your thoughts. we'll have this as our "news nation" gut check. do people agree with the obama administration, this threat of going off the cliff if rates aren't reached. here's what nancy pelosi had to say about geithner's remarks. let me play it. >> if there is no agreement, then the fiscal cliff has to be dealt with. i didn't see it if they decent this, we do that. i saw it as a statement of fact. it's not a threat. it's a prediction. if there's no agreement, we go over the cliff. let's hope we can have an

agreement. >> what do you make of the way she put it? it's not a threat. she said, listen, these are the facts. >> nice little economy you have there. nice little economy you have there. it would be a shame it if anything happened to it. that's not a threat. look, we have to start looking at what happens if we do, in fact, go over the so-called cliff, and what happens is, you know, one thing is we take a huge bite out of the deficit. we do it in a crude may, and there would be immediate attempts to fix it and fine-tune it and take some back. some would probably get through. if you actually want to look at it from a policy standpoint, it may not be the worst possible option to just go over the cliff and then put back in the tax cuts and the spending increases or renewals that you'd like to put back in. so, you know, worst things could happen. >> well, listen, alan simpson and i go back to his sound from

the "today" show, eugene. he said anyone talking about it in that way, there's stupidity involved. he didn't say, eugene, you better not because you're my buddy, but the reality is even our first read team says this notion or all of this media hype about going off the cliff from some of our colleagues is overstated. to their point a deal is in sight, that's why boehner and the president spoke yesterday. it's a matter of how big. will they separate the tax cuts from a larger needed plan later down the road? i guess what you folks in d.c. like to call "kicking the can." >> yeah. i do think it's likely there will be a deal. it's likely to be much closer to the president's terms than to the house's terms because the president has the leverage in this negotiation and the wind at his back as smirk said from the elections. so we're going through this sort of kabuki drama a little while

longer. the president doesn't mind stretching it out a while longer because, as i said, he's winning. >> and especially when you have someone like this lovely family as a backdrop saying, here's what will happen to our family. we want to open a small business, and the president is there in this moment listening to their story. what is the counter for republicans? i don't know. having mitt romney or some really rich person behind them being comforted? so the optics are not equally matched. i want to talk about senator jim demint and his resignation. we knew he would leave the senate. this timing surprised people. he said in his resignation, michael, i'm leaving the senate and not living the fight. i've decided to join the heritage foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas. dick army left his conservative group and senator demint making this transition to the think

tank. is this another impact of the election? another consequence of the election? >> yeah, i'd love to know what his republican colleagues are saying behind closed doors. from my perch, you know, this is a guy who played a significant role in costing the gop about a half-dozen seats that they otherwise would have won. look at what happened in i understand. look at what happened in delaware where the mindset of senator demint seems to be one of, let's win the battle, even if we're going to lose the war. they've lost about a half-dozen wars because they put forth names that could win a primary but could never win a general election. my hunch, tamron, is politically some of the republicans are not all that sad to see him go. >> real quick to your point about the win/lose. he supported 20 candidates, 15 won primaries, 7 won general elections. in his reaction mitch mcconnell said that demint helped galvanize the american people against a big government agenda.

that's at least what senator mcconnell sees there. >> yeah, right. the fact is his record was not good, and look. what i'm concerned about actually is that does this mean that the heritage foundation becomes marginiz izizaled from main street movement? heritage is the source of a lot of conservative ideas, not all of which are crazy. it's interesting to see if it remains in the conservative mainly stream or if it goes off into a fringe. >> thank you, gentlemen. greatly appreciate it. let me bring in democratic congre congresswoman from ohio. she ranks third on the house budget committee. thank you for joining us. we hope we got you at the top of the hour. >> thank you, tamron. >> what are your thoughts on the notion there's a dpeel in sight. it's a question of whether you have the bush tax cuts separate and deal with the other issues

of entitlement and the fiscal issues the president wants to address as far as the debt ceiling later? >> i'm very optimistic, tamron. i think the parties are talking and there's a lot of shuffles back and forth between the white house and congress. there are republican and democratic caucuses to deal with, but i see problem. the talks haven't broken down. this isn't a middle east standoff in any way. we actually have momentum. there are specific proposals on the website by the president. there have been proposals on the republican side. they're continuing to talk. i think it's all positive. >> where do you see progress specifically? we don't know the details of the conversation yesterday, but where do you see progress? >> what i really like about the president's approach is that he's holding the line on what he campaigned on in the election. that is that if you are middle class and you earn under $250,000 a year, you shouldn't have your taxes go up come january 1st. that would cost the average

family about $2,000 or a little more, depending on the number of children you have. the american people can't afford that right now with a slow growth economy. we have to keep the recovery going, and that means we have to have spending in the pockets of ordinary families. he's been holding the line on that. even the most wealthy will receive that up to the level of 250,000, but over that he's saying you have to pay your fair share. >> we noted that democrats have largely almost altogether supported the president's proposal. we have not seen that same support from republicans to speaker boehner. he has the rank and file behind him, but we have conservative voices both in the senate and house criticize the plan he put on the table. with that said, again, i guess my initial question is where do you see progress? you noted where the president stood the line and been loyal to the words he offered to the american public upon re-election, but as far as these negotiations are concerned, where is the progress? >> well, i think republican voices are being raised. even lindsey graham over in the

senate and in the house, you're seeing the congressman speak out from ohio. though he's leaving, he sees a path forward to an agreement. i think we need 218 to pass a measure in the house, and i think we're on the road to do that. >> quickly, we have to talk about major changes to social security and medicare. you are against it. a new poll shows that 70% are opposed to medicaid spending cuts, 51% oppose raising medicare age. where are you you willing to compromise on entitlements when that part of the conversation is dealt with? >> first of all, social security is not a part of the debt problem. it has its own trust fund. it's well accounted for. it's actuarially sound to 2040 right now. medicare we took care of in the president's bill. in terms of medicaid, there's jostling between the states and the federal government right now, but that's a bigger question that shouldn't be dealt with by the end of the december.

that's a bigger question. we've already taken $1.7 trillion in cuts, and the president is put another $800 billion up on the table. i think the democratic side has been very forthcoming in terms the cuts, cuts in a way that will not harm the recovery. zoou for your time. i greatly appreciate you joining us at this point. thank you. both secretary of state hillary clinton and defense secretary leon panetta issued more stern warnings to syria today after nbc confirmed syria has loaded chemicals for deadly gas into bombs. >> the whole world is watching. the whole world is watching very closely. >> secretary clinton, in fact, just wrapped up an important meeting in russia, syria's strongest ally. "time" magazine's jim frederick will join us live about the latest developments. we know president obama and speaker boehner spoke on the phone last night, talked a lot about that even though we don't

know what they discussed. the first read team says a fiscal cliff deal is in sight. what do they think the big deal will be? join our conversation on twitter. find us at @tamronhall a and @newsnation. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. [ man thinking ] oh, this gas. those antacids aren't working. oh no, not that, not here! [ male announcer ] antacids don't relieve gas. gas-x is designed to relieve gas. gas-x. the gas xperts.

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leon panetta issued another stern warning to syria's president against using chemical weapons on his own people. the syrian military has loaded precursor materials into bombs is is awaiting final orders from president assad to use it on the people. one official said if assad goes ahead, there's little the world

can do. meantime, secretary of state clinton met with her counterpart from russia, syria's strongest ally. they met on the sidelines of a european security conference in ireland. the special u.n. envoy to syria was at the meeting said they agreed to seek a, quote, creative solution to the syrian crisis. jim miklaszewski joins us with the latest. let's talk about the information that nbc reported regarding the syrian military and its actions right now. >> to be clear the precursor of chemicals or at least a couple that actually when combined chemically create that deadly nerve gas. we've been told by u.s. sources those precursor chemicals have been preloaded now into aerial bombs that could be dropped from the fighter bombers onto the syrian people. as of this afternoon there is still no indication that the syrians have actually put -- attempted to put those weapons

on aircraft or that there's been a final fatal order from president assad to carry out any kind of attack. so it appears right now that they are in at least the preparation mode, but they're really just one step away from actually carrying out those chemical weapons attacks. we heard secretary panetta say today that the latest intelligence on what's going on with those chemical weapons is very concerns to have specifically. in regard to the remark from one u.s. official that if president assad actually gives the order to go ahead and carry out the attack, there's very little that the outside world could do. that's in reference to a preemptive kind of attempt to prevent the strike from happening. it would be just too difficult logistically and militarily to intervene. for example, if you tried to bomb the weapon sites, you'd make matters worse because those

weapons could spread that deadly gas. what they're talking about in terms of consequences is some kind of retaliatory action. what would that be? some suggest it could be regime targets. the defense ministry, the presidential palace, president assad himself. >> mick, i want to discuss this new interview with afghan president karzai in kabul. he's talking about the u.s. in very harsh words. let me play what karzai said in this new interview. >> part of the insecurities coming to us from the instructions that nato and the u.s. created in afghanistan, the private security firms, the contractors that they promoted at the cost of afghan people and the way they behaved with the afghan people and the anger that has caused in the people and the

resulting insecurity. >> would you say you believe that some of these would be intentional insecurity brought by nato and the united states? >> there's a very strong perception that some of that insecurity is intentional. >> karzai aaccused the u.s. of violating the strategic partnership agreement. he said his forces would be ready to take charge when the u.s. completes its withdrawal at the end of 2014. obviously, the remarks we played are those getting a lot of attention. >> you know, the remarks or the response here has been pretty muted. i can tell you the feeling here is that his remarks that the u.s. is intentionally involved in trying to intimidate or provoke the afghan people, you know, that borders on silliness. the response pretty much is it's karzai being karzai. trying to assert himself in terms of going up against the

americans and stressing that everything is about afghan sovereignty, which has been a sore point for many afghan citizens. so he's playing to his home audience. not sure it's going to cause any change in the way the u.s. strategy is being carried out or the way the u.s. officials approach karzai and the problems there in afghanistan. >> mick, thank you. let me bring in "time" magazine international editor jim frederick. we wanted you on to talk about, obviously, the situation in syria. let me play what senator john mccain just said at a news conference in the last hour. let's play it please. >> looking at it from assad's viewpoint, they see us leave iraq and return al qaeda in iraq. we've seen nothing but aannouncements of withdrawal from afghanistan. we've watched al qaeda elements able it to destroy our -- or damage severely our consulate in benghazi and kill four brave

americans. the message has to be sent that the united states is engaged. that the united states is ready to be involved, and the united states is ready to do whatever is necessary to prevent an act that could endanger or take the lives of literally thousands and thousands of innocent people. >> senator mccain obviously blending in every issue he can possibly put on the list there. but in reality i think that sound clip points to the difficulty the president will have on any decision that comes out of this. he's going to have opposition or second-guessing from john mccain and his supporters, but what are the options if, in fact, syria makes this move? >> i think that option number one is to let russia try to do something. it's really the only country left that has a significant amount of influence when it comes to assad and assad in terms of political maneuvering. so clinton met with the foreign minister of russia, and that's our greatest hope right now. is russia can do something. russia is softening the position on regime change in syria,

because i think that they see the syrian regime, this might be an indication we're entering the end game. their job is to ensure that assad doesn't go from even though he's killed 40,000 people, he has been a fairly rational and self-preserving actor here. bombing them with sarin gas means he tipped over into utterly irrational and the whole world has a big problem on his hands. >> this brings up the question of should more have been done earlier, and what were the options? >> it's easy for senator mccain when you're not in power saying we should do all things. the thing we should remember is regime change, libya, egypt, iraq, it very rarely goes well. >> the consequences of regime change, even when it's supported. >> right. in syria there are so many more competing factions for power, that i think a regime change in syria, we might be in for a whole different category of

problems. to say that the united states should just walk in there and designate a new leader or do whatever it takes, i mean, that itself is a little naive and easy to say when you're not sitting in the chair. >> thank you very much. coming up, i talk with congressman bill pascral who wroelt a letter to make an urgent request about the alternative minimum task. he said failure to increase federal taxes for half of the people in his state. plus, treasury secretary tim geithner says the obama administration is, quote, absolutely ready to go over the cliff if republicans refuse to raise taxes on the rich. do you support that decision? it is our gut check. first, in today's money minute, here's a look at the markets. ♪

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welcome back. people in washington are lighting up to celebrate the state's new marijuana law in effect. at midnight last night it was, and it's part of our news around the nation. speaker john boehner may have the conservative critics, but the "new york times" supports they have more support than the rank and file before, in fact, giving him flexibility to cut a fiscal cliff deal. the first read team is asking the question how big of a deal will we see? governor christie meets with president obama this time at the white house, and it is just one of the things we thought you should know. be sure to check out our "news nation" tumblr page. you find behind the scenes pictures, and thank you for checking it out and liking our pictures. ♪ ♪

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the fiscal cliff and after yesterday's hot rhetoric on the campaign trail, our first read team says there's a light at the end of the tunnel. they write perhaps some of our media brethren should stop with the sky he is falling headlines. they say a deal is in sight. the only question is how big. today the washington post reports republican centrists and they're calling on speaker boehner. joining me to talk about it, mark murray. so the something in return, what would it be specifically, mark? >> there are two options on the table if republicans do budge on taxes. that seems to be where everything is moving. the one option is they kind of resolve the tax issue and kick the can down the road on entitlements and the debt ceiling. we have a big fight over those in the spring our summer of 2013. option 2 is the big deal, and

you have everything on the table or at least the framework to do all the things. so taxes, entitlements, debt ceiling, maybe a little stimulus here or there where all sides give-and-take a little bit. that's the big deal. tamron, getting the big deal is more complicated. it is always harder to do these types of deals, but there would be legacy components for president obama and house speaker john boehner if they can get one done in the next couple of weeks. >> we know things change day to day, comparing the ton yesterday. we started the show with any and everyone saying whether they would budge or not from members of the house, the senate, and, of course, the president included, and then today you have this moment right now where the president is in northern virginia with an american family who wrote saying that they would be greatly impacted. in fact, their small business they want to start they feel would be impacted by this. there was a phone conversation last night between the president and speaker boehner. to your point about those in the media believing that the sky is falling, that maybe we should

stop being chicken little that said the sky is falling? i don't know. can't keep up. >> when you bet on washington getting things done, there's always a heavy does of skepticism. we saw during the debt ceiling fight just a painful ordeal there. it is very hard to get things do done on capitol hill. it's always been that case, but there are things that are kind of moving where you look at the fact if republicans are under the understanding that somehow they have to budge on taxes, they might start asking, what can we get in return? if they actually put things like entitlement reform on the table and say, this is what we want in return, it's very possible that the obama white house ends up meeting them more than halfway on some things, and that's how you get a deal. >> mark murray, thank you very much. let me bring in new jersey congressman bill paskrell. thank you for your time. i want to get your reaction to what mark murray just reported, moving down the line it's possible the president will make a move regarding entitlement

reform that might not set well with some progressives. what is your take on that being a possible development if, in fact, the deal is reached on, first of all, the bush era tax cuts? >> i think mark is on target. i think we have a short-term solution here. that is to provide the sustained tax cuts for the 98% of americans who are in the middle class, and 97% of small businesses. then make a framework, provide a framework so we can have a long-term settlement finally on tax reform. that's going to come. it's similar to what senator bradley, remember him, in new jersey did in 1986 when we reframed and reformed the tax code. i think that's necessary. that's just as important as the tax cuts for the middle class, i believe. now, if we can settle on a framework at least to get to that within this first three or four months of the next

congress, i think, tamron, we have a deal going here. it's possible that we can get this done before christmas. >> but one of your concerns and you sent an open letter regarding the fact in this deal you do not want the alternative minimal tax to be forgotten here. >> absolutely. we have that problem every year. it affects more people, more middle class people. nobody even knew what the alternative minimum tax was 8, 9 years ago. now more and more americans, millions are susceptible to it. if you have to patch it for another year, i would hope to get a final solution to that situation very, very shortly because we cannot have that anxiety hanging over folks as they go to pay their taxes in february and march of next year. >> absolutely. another issue, i guess, that is seen as a complication but one that must be addressed the president says, the debt ceiling. i want to play what senator mcconnell has said regarding the president and the portion of his proposal that included the debt ceiling.

let's play it. >> the last person who should have limitless borrowing power. look, the only way we cut spending around here is by using the debate over the debt limit to do it. >> i bet you don't agree with that? >> i don't agree with that. we've seen what happens. we've been brought to the brink and don't want to go back to 1995 when the folks walked out and government was shut down. what did we accomplish? i think even mr. gingrich would want that one back of a few years ago. look, there's no question in my mind we have to look at the entitlements in order to finish this deal next year. the fact is that social security doesn't add one penny to the deficit or the debt. let's get the facts straight on this. we've been looking at these entitlements, scrutinizing them. we've had bipartisan changes to social security to make it sustainable. we can do that again. don't blame social security and medicare for our problems.

i would say a major part of the problem is health care expenses, and i think the affordable health care bill attacked that issue particularly. if we don't lower health care costs, we are not going to get the budget in balance regardless of what we do. >> we have below you daishg you can't see it. a new poll was taken. a majority didn't want to see cuts in medicaid and didn't want the eligibility age increase for medicare. >> you're absolutely right. you put more burden on the states. right now the states are struggling to keep their head above water as it is. if you put that burden on the states, then they are going to move accordingly to the towns and their taxpayers in that particular state. in my state of new jersey, we pay an exorbitant amount of federal taxes. we're a donor state and we provide the necessary dollars so we spread it out according to the wealth. this is important. this is a critical concept in our capitalistic economy.

the more you make, the more you pay in your share. tax reform is a real drag-out battle next year, because we deal with a subject laid on the side for all years while we go through these budget emergencies as you would say. we need to attack that, attack it head on. we need to, i believe, move into the era of taxing wealth more than income. i think that's very important for the american people so we come up with a fair tax code. don't forget, most of the tax code is written by folks that are millionaires and billionaires who have lawyers. you don't have a lawyer and i don't have a lawyer. to do these things to make it fair. we are behind the box every time we start to have this debate and discussion. we want fairness in this system. we want everybody to pay what they're supposed to pay. there's no question about that. i don't think that's been happening, tamron. when you talk about tax reform,

put it all on the table. >> it sounds like you're telling us to strap in because it's quite a battle now and in the new year. thank you for your time. >> nice talking to you. >> thank you. coming up a grammy battle. did you hear this? between the first lady and the former president. it is just one thing we thought you should know. a little grammy news mixed with politics. plus a face-off in court between two of the world's top smartphone makers. apple wants some samsung products banned. they don't want them sold in the u.s. how this could impact the tablet market and smartphone market. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. by december 22nd music is a universal language.

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without freshly-made pasta. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's. with his wife, danielle, almost every weekend. derrell hasn't been able to visit his mom back east in a long time. [ shirley ] things are sometimes a little tight around the house. i wasn't able to go to the wedding. [ emily jo ] since derrell couldn't get home, we decided to bring home to him and then just gave him a little bit of help finding his way. ♪ [ laughs ] [ applause ] i love you. i love you, too. the world's top two mobile phone makers will reignite a patent battle today and it could affect which phones you can use. lawyers for apple and samsung

return to court in less than two hours. at the heart of the hour, samsung wants to overturn a verdict that they copied apple's technology. now apple wants to keep samsung devices like smartphones and tablets out of american store. this all basically started in the summer. >> the trial end theed in the summer. they said you owe apple a billion dollars. they're going back and aapple is saying they want more money, and samsung says they want to pay them less or nothing at all. apple, of course, has their secret weapon, this list of products they want samsung to stop sell negotiate u.s. >> to get them to stop selling these products is equivalent to hitting them where it hurts. the billion dollar settlent is a big deal but forcing products off shelves would be a problem. >> that's how you stick it to the competition. samsung is probably the biggest smartphone maker next to apple,

so this is the real competition. >> sticking it to samsung is sticking it to people who own these products? >> light of the products that apple wants to ban are older products not for sale anymore. samsung is smart with their latest generation. they make them just different enough they would not be covered by this. >> there's other news regarding apple, and they will start to make macs in the u.s. again. >> they used to here in the u.s. over the years that moved overseas. some may come back with the i-macs and desktops. that's a win all around. >> there was interesting news regarding the markets and apple yesterday as well. are they -- i guess they're on solid ground as we've seen before? >> apple stock is all over the place. some of it is people predicting the sales for the fourth quarter and a lot of court cases. a lot is people are unsure about the economy these days and the post-steve jobs era.

>> even around christmastime when the products are popular as gifts. >> you think retail sales would translate well because there's so many other issues there besides how much they sell in the store. >> it's interesting. we'll see what happens with this case and if it has an impact of consumers that own these products. thank you very much. marijuana is now legal under washington state law. that tops our look at stories around the "news nation." take a look. that's how they celebrated in washington state. the news came down after midnight as you know at the seattle center. it allows people to possess up to an ounce of pot, but they cannot smoke it in public. that looks like public to me. the police department will issue verbal warnings to violators. that explains the public video. lawyers for software company founder john mcafee sought guatemala denied his asylum. they detained him for entering the country illegally.

he's wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor. he denies any involvement and will likely be deported. the duchess of cambridge is resting at home this morning. she left the hospital where she was treated for severe morning sickness. today prince charles made his first public comments since the news broke that she's going to have a baby. >> i'm thrilled. very nice for grandfatherhood in my old age, so that's splendid. i'm very glad my daughter-in-law is getting better thank goodness. >> so the hospitalization prompted the palace to aannounce the pregnancy earlier than they wanted to. today's "news nation" gut check is up next. we're talking about treasury secretary tim geithner's comments regarding the possibility of going over that fiscal cliff. >> if republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. >> so do you agree with the obama administration's decision

to go over the cliff if tax rates on the wealthy don't increase? you can join the "news nation" on facebook. we're at facebook.com/newsnation. ♪ if it wasn't for you ♪ don't know what i'd do ♪ i'd have nothing to prove ♪ i'd have nothing to lose [ male announcer ] zales is the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off storewide, now through sunday. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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rebuild there's so much going on today. new jersey governor chris christie met with president obama this morning to request federal aid to victims of superstorm sandy. the president is expected to ask congress for about $50 billion in emergency assistance. christie has said new jersey alone will spend almost $37 billion on rebuilding. michelle obama is competing with bill clinton for a grammy for best spoken word album. the first lady red the audio version of "american grown," the story of the white house garden. the former president narrated his book "back to work." those are a couple of things we thought you should knowment time for the news narc gut check.

treasury he secretary tim geithner told cnbc yesterday that the obama administration is absolutely ready to go over the cliff if republicans refuse to raise tax rates on the wealthiest americans. take a look. >> when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy, if republicans do not agree to that is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthy. >> orrin hatch called that one of the most stunning and irresponsible statements he's heard in some time. what does your gut tell you? do you support the obama administration's decision to go over the cliff? that does it for this edition of "news nation." thanks for hanging with us. i'm tamron hall. we'll see you tomorrow. "the cycle" is up next. o think medicare and... social security are just numbers in a budget.

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26 days until the fiscal free fall. we're hard at work today. we have lawrence o'donnell, and he gets the first word trait ahead. >> see what she did there? he normally gets the last word. the big news from the senate today, they saved us from the slope. there's a resignation to talk p about. >> guess who made this year's list of the world's most powerful people? here's a hint. toure just missed the cut. >> here's why i take issue with the cut. picture people, toure2016.com. >> time's up. it's thursday, december 6th, and you're in "the cycle." and so it